Just lately, I used to be interviewed about my new guide Humanity’s Religious Rebirth: Knowledge to Remodel Struggles into Energy. What follows are the profoundly wealthy and perennial non secular questions that Linda Mackenzie (host of the Linda Mackenzie Present) requested me and the responses I wrote the night earlier than calling into her radio present.
I want to share this transcript with you, with Linda’s permission, as a result of I humbly consider there could also be some nuggets of inspiration tucked inside which will aid you by yourself journey of awakening.
Peace and love,
Forrest
On struggling
Linda Mackenzie (Host): Because it pertains to struggling, what do you imply while you write in your guide that we should “Rewrite the Narrative”?
Forrest Rivers: By “rewrite the narrative,” I imply to say that struggling doesn’t should be checked out as one thing inherently unfavourable, as most of us in Western tradition are conditioned to consider. Slightly, from a non secular perspective, struggling can develop into the sandpaper for our personal awakening. Our expertise with struggling can strengthen our internal resolve, humble us, construct higher braveness and assist open our hearts to the very risk of rising in our knowledge and compassion.
I feel many people have endured excruciatingly tough experiences in our lives that on the time appeared just like the worst issues possible to bear. However then by means of the passage of time and after a lot internal reflection, possibly we got here to achieve a deeper understanding of how these intervals of struggling served to expedite our personal non secular progress within the methods outlined above.
Wanting again at my very own life, I can say with absolute certainty that enduring struggling strengthened my internal resolve, grew my humility and braveness, and hopefully made me a wiser and extra compassionate particular person. That is what I imply by rewriting the narrative: shifting our personal perspective of our relationship to affected by one that’s wrapped up in our ego’s reactions to the very actual emotions of worry, despair, ache, unhappiness and disgrace that we really feel once we undergo; to that which soulfully acknowledges how our struggles are remodeled into knowledge and power.
On loss of life
Linda: How will we transcend our worry of loss of life?
Forrest: A method that we are able to transcend our worry of loss of life is thru embracing the impermanence of all issues on this bodily world. All the things in our universe is all the time in flux, is all the time altering. But, there’s this everlasting seed embedded inside us that we might name our spirit, our soul or our deathless self. And it’s unchanging and infinite in its essence.
So if we have a look at loss of life on this means, what’s there actually to worry? Our souls take delivery in these our bodies. And after a sure period of time, our our bodies die, however our spirit/soul/deathless self lives on. Then we take delivery in one other physique to proceed our work. It’s not altogether totally different from the cycle of the seasons.
By embracing this sense of impermanence, we be taught to narrate to loss of life as not solely a really pure course of, however as a profound transition of kind merging again into the formless spirit—our unique nature.
On gratitude
Linda: What’s the Mild of Gratitude that you simply allude to in your guide?
Forrest: The sunshine of gratitude is an expression of divine grace that’s bestowed upon every one among us. And this grace permits us to stay in humble appreciation for the day by day miracles in our lives. In fact, the truth that we’re right here within the first place as aware souls in these our bodies, sharing on this common expertise—this cosmic dance—is the last word of all miracles!
The sunshine of gratitude additionally means for us to get up day-after-day grateful for all the great that exists in our lives, such pretty much as good well being, entry to shelter/clear meals/water, and dependable relations and associates.
On goals
Linda: How and why must you discover the braveness to chase your goals?
Forrest: A method that you’ll find the braveness to chase your goals is by quieting your thoughts by means of practices like meditation. One of many (many) advantages of the follow is that it helps us transfer past the self-limiting ideas and emotions of unworthiness that stand in the best way of chasing our goals.
We should always all chase our goals as a result of God/The One/your greater energy (or no matter title you want to name that chic non secular intelligence that lives within us) needs us to be completely happy and fulfilled. However we are able to’t discover the braveness to chase our goals if we are able to’t first discover ways to overcome our self-limiting ideas and emotions of unworthiness.
On prayer
Linda: Clarify what it means to outlive by means of religion and heal by means of prayer?
Forrest: Religion turns into our internal instrument to transcend the very tough moments that life typically presents to us, just like the loss of life of a liked one, a persistent or terminal sickness, private addictions, homelessness, divorce or bodily and emotional abuse. Our expertise of those sort of struggles can really feel overwhelming and particularly hopeless if we don’t personally discover an internal refuge in our greater energy, our guru or guides.
Religion not solely helps us navigate the challenges and hardships of life, but it surely helps us discover each which means and goal in our struggling, which is commonly instrumental for our non secular progress. As my very own guru Ram Dass (who himself suffered a devastating stroke and was in a wheelchair for the ultimate quarter of his life) was fond of claiming, “Struggling is grace.”
He didn’t imply to say we must always invite struggling into our lives or flip a blind eye to a different’s struggling. In no way. Slightly, we must always lean into the profoundly wealthy classes that our struggling presents us in the best way of opening our hearts to the deeper truths of our being.
Religion is the bridge that takes us past fearful fragmentation to fearless fullness as a part of the changeless complete. And from that deep reservoir of religion that we uncover within the very depths of our struggling, prayer emerges as a strong expression of our full belief in and peaceable give up to the need of the One, God, Universe, Spirit and its inherent knowledge (which can also be inside every one among us).
Put in different phrases, by means of surrendering our personal ego’s will by means of prayer, we hand over our judgments of our personal struggling and start to open to the chance that it would certainly serve a higher goal within the awakening of the soul. The truth that religion and prayer permit us to positively relate to our personal struggling on this means (an open, expansive and non-attached means, versus one which’s tight and reactive) goes a good distance in the direction of the therapeutic of our souls.
On Mom Earth
Linda: What’s Earth Communion and why ought to we commune with the Earth?
Forrest: Earth communion means to forge a blissful union with Mom Earth. The which means of Earth communion is akin to a sacred covenant by which we honour, serve, shield and worship the spirit of divinity that’s inherent within the Earth. We should always commune along with her as a result of we’re part of her. We aren’t separate from her. We rely on the Earth for our sustenance, and we derive nice which means from her.
It’s not a shock that modern-day ills like nervousness, despair, violence and alienation proceed to worsen, as one of many elementary sources of every of those ills is our detachment from nature and the pure rhythms of the Earth. Our world’s worship of know-how has put us in a really awkward and unlucky predicament: We not know who and what we’re as a result of we have now severed ourselves (in our minds) from the guiding knowledge of nature.
So why ought to we commune with the Earth? To reclaim our spirit. To recollect who and what we really are: youngsters of the Earth.
On self-mastery
Linda: Why is self-sufficiency the highway to self-mastery, as you write in your guide?
Forrest: By turning into self-sufficient, impartial actors within the manifestations of our intentions, ideas and actions, we develop into free-thinking and aware beings. If we don’t develop into impartial and self-sufficient in these methods, we’re nothing greater than mechanical robots on the whims of societal programming. “Assume this!” “Do That.” Chase after this even when it doesn’t carry you a way of goal, happiness or pleasure.”
How can we probably obtain any semblance of self-mastery (the power to manage our personal impulses, feelings and behaviours and stay a extra centered and spiritually oriented life) if we aren’t in a position to specific our personal internal freedom? Self-mastery can solely be realized by means of the lengthy and tough means of understanding your self so deeply to the purpose at which you’re in a position to align your internal world with desired outward actions.
To do that, we should free ourselves of our conditioning. We should develop into, because the Zen Buddhists say, “empty.” That’s, with out conditioned ideas, opinions and judgments of the world round us. Simpler stated than achieved, to make certain!
On love
Linda: What’s Love received to do with all of it?
Forrest: EVERYTHING. Love and connection is all the pieces. Love is us. Love is the connecting root of all issues and the glue that binds us as non secular beings in these bodily varieties and past all varieties. Because the Nice Indian Saint Neem Karoli Baba used to say, “Sub Ek,” which interprets to “all is one” in English. Love is that Multi functional.
Earlier than something, earlier than even our exterior identities that we steadily assume by means of our conditioning as youngsters and younger adults, we’re seeds of loving consciousness. At our roots, that’s who and what we’re. That’s what God is. That’s what lives inside every of us … loving consciousness.
Once we see the infinite horrors and injustices carried out by world leaders towards our personal brothers and sisters, what we’re actually bearing witness to is a good forgetting of who and what all of us basically are. And who and what we’re is loving consciousness. By this Nice Forgetting, the shadow of darkness reigns and the devastating outcomes are there for us all to see: The desecration of the Earth, brutal wars, the immense exploitation of the poor and downtrodden all through our world, hunger and illness.
However not all hope is misplaced. If we might all simply flip inside ourselves and switch in the direction of love, the heaven on Earth that so many individuals appear to consider won’t ever be potential would develop into a actuality in a single day. I actually place confidence in that assertion. If all of us turned inside ourselves and turned in the direction of love, in the direction of God, in the direction of the One, heaven on Earth would develop into a actuality in a single day.
Ultimately, we’ll discover that love all the time prevails. And that love is destined to transcend all of the darkness of hate, worry and separation. All the time bear in mind, the sunshine of affection shines shiny inside you, identical to Christ’s love: inextinguishable and ever-present.
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photographs: Depositphotos
